Joined by only 22 Democrats, Republicans successfully pushed through a bill allowing uranium mining on federal lands to be exempted from "formal environmental reviews. Also included in the exemption would be copper, silver, and gold. Rep. Ed Markey (Dem-MA) accused the Republicans  of "actually appear[ing] to be trying to usher in a new stone age," saying the bill was "a pretext for gutting environmental protections relating to virtually all mining operations" and "a GOP giveaway game show here on the House floor." 

Rep. Rush Holt, Democrat- NJ joined Ed Markey in saying: "It has almost nothing to do with national strategic critical minerals production... Make no mistake, this is a giveaway... It is free mining, no royalties, no protection of public interest, exemption from royalty payments, near exemption from environmental regulations, near exemption from legal enforcement of the protections."

LARRY MARGASAK (AP) l Seattle Times l 12 Juy 2012

Republicans pushed a bill through the House Thursday that allows the government to exempt gold, copper, silver and uranium mining on federal land from formal environmental reviews...

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Nuclear energy is not the only technology that produces radioactive waste. The proposed Lynas rare earth mining project will produce it as well. Unlike nuclear energy production which has accumulated 50 plus years of rad waste and still no solutio...

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